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Really, Really Busy!



Only a brief essay today as I have a huge array of deadlines I am trying to meet at this time. However, I need a few minutes of reprieve after lecturing in a very animated and bombastic fashion for the last two hours. So, here I am, in my back, back office... the little space hidden away behind my lab and my official lab office.... this is the one place where I get *almost* no one disturbing me (only my secretary sometimes checks if she is desperate... and she has been sworn to secrecy about telling others about my space).

My "back, back" office differs drastically from my regular, very access friendly office and also from my "back" research office..... both my "regular" and my "back" offices are where I am bombarded by people all the time. My regular office is where I meet the majority of my students in my classes. My "back" office is at the far end of my research lab... and there I am usually working and interacting with my research students. But, in a door that many people do not notice, and and even fewer know where it leads, is my "back, back" office. It is a little cubby-hole of a place but is often my inner sanctum away from the incessant yammering, away from the throngs of people always needing something from me. It is a place where I can think in an extended, sequential, fashion or just relax for a bit. In this austere place is one small window, a well-scarred small desk, a four drawer file cabinet and an old (but well loved), rickety old wooden desk chair.

I am leaning back right now in my chair, my feet up on the desk top. My laptop is sitting on my lap (just as its name intends, I suppose) while I type to you. I have been drinking a massive, and delightfully cold diet soda, and just moments ago, I filled and fired up my pipe.

The calmness of this room soothes me, the soda quenches my dry mouth, and my beloved pipe gently massages my neurons into contemplation. (Side note: I am still wondering a bit about why I have been so utterly enamored with daydreaming about pipes and pipe smoking the last couple of days. I am daydreaming about pipes all the time. I really am not sure why. While I, of course, enjoy my pipes and pipe tobacco daily, I do not *often* feel such a compelling sense to think about them as I have the last two days. The mood is interesting in-and-of itself.) I will probably stay here another 15 minutes, continuing to relax, before I head back to one of the two other offices to get back to work. But, I need this quiet time for a bit.

PipeTobacco